Barcelona's SOUNDIT is a glorious antithesis to the big festival complex

Spanning two days in July, SOUNDIT's second edition paired up an unmissable line-up with fresh DIY spirit

Features

Barcelona's SOUNDIT is a glorious antithesis to the big festival complex

Spanning two days in July, SOUNDIT's second edition paired up an unmissable line-up with fresh DIY spirit

Words: Megan Townsend | Photos: Laura Dominguez, Alba Rupérez & Adrian Oliphant Morittu

20 August 2026

It's a sweltering afternoon on the outskirts of Barcelona and, with eyesight compromised by the wavy heat haze in every direction, we're doing laps of tarpaulin-laden gates. Subtle treads of bass underfoot are helping to find our destination, like the dolphins using echolocation to hunt down schools of mackerel in the nearby Mediterranean sea. We're at the Parc Nou in El Prat de Llobregat , less than a mile-or-so from Barcelona Airport's extensive complex. The surrounding area is marked with industrial estates, car rental HQs, shipping warehouses and an Estrella brewery, but the minute we stand beneath the aged pines, the air cools and the atmosphere feels tranquil, even with the early throes of a festival kicking into gear. At the entrance, a middle-aged Catalonian security guard greets us with smile and insists on filling up a water bottle before moving any further.

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It's a good starting point for the general atmosphere of SOUNDIT , a festival from the long-running Barcelona promoter of the same name, that has invited a mouthwatering array of old and new school electronic greats to this lush little expanse for its second edition across July 17 and 18. Boasting the likes of Helena Hauff, 2manydjs, Blawan, Honey Dijon, Marcellus Pittman, Zenker Brothers, DVS1, Mala, Jump Source, Kode9, Tim Reaper, and takeovers from Munich's Ilian Tape and Latin club flagbearers TraTraTrax, across its five stages, you would be forgiven for imagining that this will be a no-holds barred affair —  think high-spec production, ample lasers, packed arenas and probably a brand activation or two, right?

Wrong. Instead, there's a sense of calm that rarely lets up. Stages are effortlessly DIY, marked by visible scaffolding and stripped-back production, with a focus on soundsystems. The tickets are cheap, ranging from €45 for a day pass, and €75 for the full event on final release, and the only ad around the site is at the bars, which are sponsored by locally-brewed Moritz beer. "We are advocating for the medium format, for intimacy and horizontal listening," says SOUNDIT's booker Laura Cabrera Sarabia, who DJs under the name Dulce. "Not so much gimmicks, but good quality sound, involved artists, a crowd that respects the history of club culture and what is being built today by new generations, a genuine attentive space for local scene, and creating dancefloors that feel more grounded in the music than the fireworks."

This "medium format" feels like a stroke of genius when applied to SOUNDIT's park setting. There are few flashy fixtures, with all festival structures appearing to blend naturally into the woodland, while existing infrastructure - such as water fountains, paths and benches - mean organisers can eschew imposing amenities. The trees help to isolate each stage away from the others, meaning each arena feels self-contained and intimate. For SOUNDITs organisers, the park is at the core of the festival's ethos: "It's essential for people living in a coastal, concrete city like Barcelona to reconnect with nature, and the El Prat community has welcomed us with such generosity and open arms," says Dulce. "Coming back to feel some dust beneath our feet, hug a tree and look up at the sky creates a deeper sense of connection. It reminds us that something is bigger than us. We find that sense of grandeur both in nature and in music."

While each stage may feel self-contained, that DIY, unmanicured energy remains consistent. SOUNDIT's main stage, EL.LIPSE, is located on the site's only real clearing, and consists of a simple elevated booth with a white covering that holds a lighting rig and lasers. Even as its biggest arena, it still feels intimate with a spattering of rarely-busy bars at its edges and an ability to get close to the action from any viewpoint, likely as a result of the festival downsizing the stage compared to last year's event. To the left are the close-in-proximity ECO and HALO. The former, where much of the festival's bass and dub-angled offerings take place, consists of a beautiful wooden-cased soundystem that is built into the booth, feeling both like an audiophile art installation and an impromptu rave. HALO, which borders it ever-so-slightly, features a booth set against a white canvas with black metal grating over the top holding multicoloured lights. It emulates a Japanese s hoji screen when unlit, but as the sky grows dark and nighttime dancing kicks into gear it becomes a kaleidoscope. This is the setting for SOUNDIT's house and EBM programming, or as one attendee puts it as we take a look around the site: "Where the girlies and the gays will be." Despite the closeness with ECO's commanding speaker stacks and HALO's smoke machines, there never seems to be a point where you can hear either stage from the other.

Over on the other side of the site, there's LABERINT, the setting for the festival's dual label takeovers, which really seems to epitomise SOUNDITs "medium" approach to stage design. It's formed simply of scaffolding around a DJ booth, with plastic panels covering each side apart from the section that faces the crowd, and has speakers attached to its upper corners. The scaffolding seems to melt into the trees once it gets dark, the grooves on the plastic panels glow and shimmer as they refract light, and the speakers are part of a mouth-watering crimson Void soundsystem that I can't help but keep staring at dreamily throughout sets.

The fina; stage is SOUNDIT's smallest and a new addition for 2